1. Field of the Invention
Connector means are provided for connecting a conductor, an electrical terminal block or the like with an inverted generally U-shaped ground rail having a pair of upwardly extending legs that terminate in outwardly extending flange portions, including a conductive plate having a body panel that extends transversely above the ground rail and includes at one end a hook portion that is locked beneath the flange portion of a first leg of the ground rail, and at the other end a plate support panel that is bent outwardly from the bottom edge portion of the body panel to a position generally normal to the body panel and in supported engagement with the upper surface a second rail leg. An inverted generally U-shaped spring has a base portion that extends parallel with the body panel above the plate support, and leg portions that are bent inwardly under the support panel and under the flange of the associated leg of the ground rail, respectively, thereby to mount the plate on the ground rail.
2. Brief Description of the Prior Art
It well known in the patented prior art to provide connector devices for connecting electrical conductors, terminal blocks and the like with a grounded rail conductor. As shown by the German Patent No. DE 39 03 752 C2, and the European Patent No. EP 0 556 560 B1, fastening feet on the connector generate sufficient retaining force for retaining the connector on a mounting rail (such as the ground rail of an electrical panel box) to effect good electrical contact while at the same time affording the necessary mechanical stability. On the basis of these designs, one is no longer dependent on the provision of additional catch feet on the insulated housings of the terminal blocks, but one does require a large volume and therefore extensive resilient force for clamping the connector to the grounded mounting rail.
On the other hand, a grounded conductor connection has been disclosed in the European patent No. EP 0 444 656 B1 wherein the contact and the fastening foot are provided with at least one hook segment that grasps one of the mounting rail legs, and where the contact and fastening foot has segments that also sit on the mounting rail legs, the spring being supported to mechanically retain the components together to effect the desired electrical contact force upon the mounting rail legs or on an abutment formed on the contact in the fastening foot. In this case, the resilient spring can no longer engage both mounting rail legs, and therefore the spring can be made relatively short and powerful. Thus, one can basically also select the spring characteristics and size in order to achieve good electrical connection with the conductive mounting rail, which may be formed of copper. However, the known design includes inherent problems, such as providing the connection between the connector in the fastening foot in the spring, which spring contains a slit up to its terminal areas and the contact and fastening foot has perpendicular segments and several abutments such that, for the purpose of final assembly, areas of the contact and fastening foot must be inserted through the slit of the spring on the latter supported against the abutments. The spring thus contacts one mounting rail leg from above when in the position ready for use along with a deformation and generation of the spring force. Making such a spring with a slit is complicated, and the slit also weakens the spring. In this design, the contact and fastening foot has a complicated three-dimensional shape. It is difficult to connect the spring with the contact and fastening foot during assembly.
The present invention was developed to avoid the above and other drawbacks of the known connecting devices.